European Fund for the Balkans panel discussion at Grantmakers East Forum (GEF), Belgrade (16-18 of October, 2013)

This year’s 18th annual Grantmakers East Forum (GEF),which is hosted by the South Eastern European Indigenous Grantmakers Network (SIGN) from the Balkan, will be held from 16 to 18 of October in Belgrade, Serbia. In sync with the GEF mission of supporting, learning, networking and collaborating among the grantmakers in order to promote the civil society development, the funders will be once again provided with a platform to discuss their grantmaking efforts and get an inspiration and encouragement for new donor activities. This year, GEF will present an unforgettable experience from the Balkans – a region where global lessons are learnt on the ground and where people had no other choice but to innovate. Innovative NGO’s, entrepreneurs, politicians and leaders will share how they address the issue of TRANSPARENCY while trying to tackle growing social and economic issues. The European Fund for the Balkans will also participate in the Forum and will present its work in the panel discussion “Transparency and policy making” (Thursday, 11.30, former Palace of the Federation, seat of the Federal Executive Council of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). As the complexity of reforms in the Western Balkans grew in 2000s, the request for more transparency for different areas of policy making process raised to prominence. Strengthening transparency based policy making and promoting a culture of its uptake has been described as a necessity in the transition context. Although the Western Balkans countries differ somewhat in their level of political and economic development, there are some common features of their policy making process: there are still dysfunctional policy processes which are characterized by low demand from policymakers for outsiders’ analysis and the independent monitoring, on one hand and on the other, relatively modest capacities of policy research organisations and the think tanks to deal with these issues. Nico Lange(Konrad Adenaur Stiftung), Milena Lazarevic (European Policy Centre, Belgrade) and Natasa Vuckovic (MP, Committee on European Integration, National Parliament of Serbia) will participate as speakers in the panel discussion, which will be moderated by Igor Bandovic, senior programme manager at the European Fund for the Balkans. City HallGEF will be organised at the City Hall on Wednesday,16 of October. On Thursday,17 of October, GEF will be held in the former Palace of the Federation, seat of the Federal Executive Council of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). GEF plenary sessions will be held in the same room where Tito met Jimmy Carter, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Margaret Thatcher.   For more info and the GEF detailed agenda check the following link. http://www.gef.efc.be/